Rap superstar Jay-Z today launched his brand new album – titled 4:44 – exclusively on Tidal (the streaming music service that he owns). In an attempt to leverage his humongous following to build the Tidal brand, the company heavily promoted a 30-Day Free Trial that would theoretically allow new users to listen to Jay-Z’s tunes with no strings attached.

Those assumptions were false and likely propagated through social media.

The Problem – TIDAL X Sprint

The real deal is as follows- you have to either be:

A Tidal user prior to June 26th

A Sprint customer

We’ve listed another option below.

Since most people aren’t Sprint customers and are only now downloading Tidal for the purpose of Jay-Z’s 4:44, they fit in neither of those categories. Painful for hopeful Jay-Z fans, but Tidal might be feeling the most pain when all is said and done. As fans flock to download the app, input their free trial info, and press the play button on “Kill Jay-Z” – the album’s first track – they’re met with the following message:

Ironically enough, that first track has inspired violent thoughts about Jay-Z without fans even having to listen to 1-second of the song itself. Don’t take my word for it, check out the 1-Star Reviews in the Google Play Store.

Don’t worry… we’ve got you covered (at least for the next 4 hours).

The Solution – iHeartRadio

It will stop streaming at 12:01AM on July 1st, so you’ve got a limited amount of time before your early access to Jay-Z’s album expires. It will assuredly become available on other platforms in the near future, though.

As a huge Jay-Z fan myself, I’ve tried the fix and can confirm it works.

Behind The Music

iHeartRadio has also gotten an inside glimpse behind the music and song meanings, which we’ve included below:

“4:44” – is a song that I wrote, and it’s the crux of the album, just right in the middle of the album. And I woke up, literally, at 4:44 in the morning, 4:44 AM, to write this song. So it became the title of the album and everything. It’s the title track because it’s such a powerful song, and I just believe one of the best songs I’ve ever written.”

“Bam” – “The song ‘Bam’ with Damian Marley, it’s just jammin’, it’s just like the song. But it’s secretly Shawn Carter saying, ‘Man, you need a bit of ego.’ It was because of me and the things that I’ve done, this is JAY-Z saying you needed a bit of ego for us to arrive at this point.”

“Caught The Eye”– is a song that’s dealing with just being aware of your surroundings. There’s a line in it, and it says, ‘Your body language is all remedial, how could you see the difference between you and I?’ Just being so sharp about your surroundings.”

“Family Feud”– is about separation within the culture. Like, new rappers fighting with old rappers, saying all these things. So, the line is, ‘Nobody wins when the family feuds.'”

“Kill JAY-Z” – The first song is called ‘Kill JAY-Z’ and obviously, it’s not to be taken literal. It’s really about the ego. It’s about killing off the ego, so we can have this conversation in a place of vulnerability and honesty.”

“Legacy” – The song is just about what it is, it’s like a verbal will. Just a song about speaking to my daughter. She starts the song off, and she says ‘Daddy, what’s a will?'”

“Marcy Me” – is a nostalgic walk through Marcy, and it’s about that hopefulness, that feeling of ‘Man, can I really do this? Can I really be one of the biggest artists in the world?’ You have these dreams, ‘Can I be one of the biggest basketball players?’ We have these dreams.”

“Moonlight” – The hook is ‘We stuck in La La Land/Even if we win, we gonna lose.’ It’s like a subtle nod to La La Land winning the Oscar, and then having to give it to Moonlight. It’s really a commentary on the culture and where we’re going.”

“Smile” – is just what it is. There are gonna be bad times, and those bad times can do two things: they can get you in a place where you’re stuck in a rut, or it can make your future that much better because you’ve experienced these things.”

“The Story of OJ” – is really a song about we as a culture, having a plan, how we’re gonna push this forward. We all make money, and then we all lose money, as artists especially. But how, when you have some type of success, to transform that into something bigger.”

Spread the Love

If this post helped you out, share this post on social media, hook up iHeartRadio with a 5-star review, and let us know what you think of the album in the comments!

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